The US economy suffered 17,000 job losses in January marking the first monthly losses since 2003, a government snapshot showed Friday in a fresh sign of brewing economic trouble.
The surprise loss in nonfarm payrolls caught most economists off guard as many had predicted that employment growth would continue in January.
Economists had anticipated that the world's biggest economy would create 70,000 new jobs in January, but the Labor Department said payrolls fell for the first time since August 2003.
"We should expect to see more bad news on the labor market, at least through the middle of the year, before the heavy doses of monetary and fiscal stimulus begin to kick in," said Nigel Gault, an economist at Global Insight.
The government revised December's job growth significantly higher to show 82,000 new posts were created compared with an initial estimate of 18,000 positions.
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